25 – Afterwards
“Ughhh…”
I regain consciousness and raise my upper body. My head feels like it’s going to split open.
With some difficulty, I opened my eyes and realized that my body was on the bed.
“Tom?”
“Big Brother?”
Familiar voices reached my ears from nearby.
“Where am I…”
The sight before my eyes was the mansion of the Anderson family on King’s Highway.
My bedroom, which I have now somewhat gotten used to.
At my bedside, I could see Maria, Christine, and Betty watching over me apprehensively.
Including Carol, a few other servants were standing at a distance.
“Big Brother!! Waaah!!”
Christine burst into tears and threw herself at me.
“Ah!”
I let out a single scream in surprise at her sudden attack.
‘In such scenes, it’s standard to take extra damage to your distressed body by clinging onto someone!’
Therefore, I braced myself for the anticipated pain.
“Ugh….uh…eh?”
It doesn’t hurt.
My joints are not aching, there are no cuts or scrapes, nor is there any throbbing pain from any bruises.
Just my head still feels a tad foggy.
In this semi-conscious state, I recall my last memory.
‘There was an explosion in the theater’
It must have certainly been a planned attack.
I remember the 100-layer plus shield on the theater prop, which was the explosive medium, being smashed in one moment.
Though I felt a considerable portion of the explosive force being offset, I blacked out due to the shock and had no subsequent memories.
While stroking Christine’s hair, I opened my mouth.
“How…? How long…?”
“Hmmm?”
Maria looked at me as if she didn’t understand what I was saying.
Her mind seemed to be not fully recovered yet.
I jerked my head hard once and lightly slapped my cheeks with both hands.
“What happened to the theater? And how much time has passed?”
Everyone went silent.
“… To, Tom! You, you did an incredible job. The princess just left too. She was here to praise you!”
Maria showered praises on me hastily.
However, that was not what I wanted to hear.
“Her majesty will bestow you a medal. You’ve done well. Now take some rest.”
Maria then advised me to rest, which was a fact, considering my not-so-stable state.
I appreciated her concern about me, and from one angle, it made sense due to her vested interests.
However, I believed that I had the right to know what exactly happened.
I took Betty’s hand, who was standing still with a gloomy expression.
“Betty. What happened?”
She was not good at lying. Even when she tried to deceive me, it was clear there were many flaws in her performance.
Even though I felt bad, as if I was exploiting her inability to lie, I couldn’t help it.
I just wanted to know.
How effective my wholehearted efforts had been.
“After Tom passed out…”
“Princess!”
Betty began talking, and Maria scolded her to stop.
But Betty didn’t stop, she continued while maintaining eye contact with me.
—————
“aaah!!!”
“Yaaah!!!”
The theatre was thrown into complete chaos after the explosion.
Betty was safe.
The vast magic that had been with her all her life, a blessing and a curse at the same time, protected her.
“Tom?”
She looked down at her prospective husband, whom she was still holding on to.
Fortunately, there were no visible injuries; only,
He was lying slackened, eyes shut, bleeding from the nose.
“No… this can’t be happening!”
Holding back her impending tears, she placed her ear on his chest and a finger on his nose.
“Sigh…”
A sigh escaped in relief.
Thankfully, his vital signs were unaltered.
She flipped over his eyelid.
She performed a series of emergency first-aid techniques she learned at the academy, and was certainly reassured.
It was merely a temporary faint.
He had activated a shield spell just before the explosion.
He had done it, using Betty’s own magical powers.
She never heard of anyone being capable of using another person’s magic. But he had succeeded.
Betty thought when he said the key phrase to activate the shield, it was to deploy a spell to protect himself. However,
At that moment, the amount of magic energy consumed within him was at a level he’d never experienced in his lifetime.
Of course, even so, it was less than one-tenth of his total capacity.
Regardless, the energy wasn’t used to protect a single individual.
Looking at the situation right after the explosion, Betty was certain.
‘He tried to protect everyone.’
The force of the explosion that he had barely sensed was powerful enough to cause death to most of the people present.
But the current situation around them was people panicking and crying in pain, thankfully still alive.
Betty carefully climbed down from his body to examine his condition.
There was not a single scratch on his body.
Even his clothes were not harmed in the slightest.
The dust from the explosion was sprinkling down, but that was it.
It was clear that something had protected him completely.
‘A shield spell wouldn’t have this effect.’
Betty thought there must have been another force protecting him.
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His own power?
Betty shook her head.
The magical power within her was always selfish. Even if it was someone she cherished, it would protect only herself at full strength, no doubt about it.
That’s why she had shielded Tom with her own body.
But if she only shielded his upper body, there should have been at least minor biological signs on his lower body, which made her think something was off.
Then what could have protected him so flawlessly?
While contemplating this, the theater became even more chaotic.
There was a stir.
An entire squadron of soldiers equipped with armored suits stormed into the theater.
These women, who appeared to be close to a hundred in number, took control of the theater in an instant.
“Everyone calm down and don’t move from your places!”
The soldiers were royal guards who Betty knew all too well.
They had probably trespassed after hearing the massive explosion.
“Pl- Please help! My son… my son!!”
A middle-aged woman pleaded with the guards, shaking her unconscious son lying limp on the ground.
“Step back! From now on, any reckless movement will be treated as a sign of terrorism!”
A person, in what seemed to be a uniform of a commanding officer, took a step forward and warned, seemingly leading the security team.
The middle-aged woman, seemingly frightened, could not say anything anymore and only gasped.
“Team 1, Team 2!”
“Yes!”
As the officer screamed at his soldiers, they responded.
“Search the vicinity thoroughly and find anyone suspicious!”
“Yes!”
The slightly less than 30 members dispersed immediately.
Looking at the confident way they moved, they likely were the best of the security team.
“Team 3, Team 4, Team 5!”
“Yes!”
“Identify the dead, severely injured and slightly injured immediately, and take those requiring treatment to the medical team!”
“Yes!”
Around 60 people dispersed evenly throughout the theater and began the rescue operation.
A soldier also approached Betty and Tom.
“Are you okay?”
“My companions have lost consciousness, but they’re not wounded.”
In response to the soldier’s question, Betty answered in a serious manner.
The soldier recorded something in the notebook he had in his hand.
Perhaps Tom would be listed as a minor injury and be added to the statistics.
The soldier lowered his pen and notebook, then requested something from Betty.
“Um… you are Princess Tyler. If you possibly can, please join in the rescue… no, in the search.”
Betty, for better or worse, was known quite widely in the kingdom due to various rumors.
Especially since her mother holds the position of the army commander, anyone in the military was more likely to know Betty.
“Yes, I will fulfill my duty under the kingdom’s laws. Please take care of him.”
Betty takes one last look at Tom slumped in the theater seat, makes a fist with her right hand and places it on her left chest in a pledge gesture.
The soldier nods his head.
Kingdom laws.
Even the current king cannot easily change the 10 commandments.
Betty was determined to uphold the most important law among them all.
First law of the Kingdom: The royalty and nobility are obliged to protect the lives and properties of the kingdom’s citizens.
Though she had only managed to protect her single fiancé during the recent explosion, a situation beyond her capability to shield everyone, it would be different from now on.
Moreover, she had grown a strong resentment toward the terrorist, as a person named Betty.
The terrorist had dared disturb a date that should have ended happily.
After confirming Thomas’ figure being blown away by the explosion, Betty was about to move for a search.
Then, a crowd voice stopped Betty in her tracks.
“Isn’t she, isn’t that the sorcerer? The one with black hair!”
-Murmuring
“That’s right! I saw her entering the theater!”
-Murmuring
“Weren’t the sorcerers supposed to be protectors of the kingdom?”
“Why didn’t she protect us?”
“My son… my son…!”
Betty felt a sudden surge of anger, mixed with a sense of emptiness and sadness.
Thomas’ figure, losing consciousness and being carried away, dripping with blood.
His magic had only lasted less than half a second before the explosion, so most people did not notice him.
It was frustrating that his efforts and dedication did not receive due recognition from these people.
“She must be pretending to be unconscious! She’s probably embarrassed that she ended up like this trying to save her own life!”
At that outrageous insult to Thomas, Betty’s magical power began to emanate.
She started walking toward the middle-aged woman who had uttered those words.
“Hold on.”
Then, someone put their hand on her chest and pushed her back.
Betty instinctively tried to grab the hand, but the other person quickly caught Betty’s hand instead.
It was the skill of a veteran.
“Creating more chaos is not allowed.”
A stern voice in a low tone.
And then she leaned towards Betty and whispered.
“It’s been a while, Betty.”
Affectionate nickname and friendly informal language.
Betty quickly came to her senses and saw her.
“This…aunt?”
She is Asilla Diolgue, a soldier who had served under her mother until about 8 years ago.
Not a real aunt related by blood, but having often been present during Betty’s childhood as one of her mother’s confidantes, she had a nick name of ‘Aunt’.
“Are you here! Colonel!”
A person dressed in the uniform of an officer, who had been commanding the royal guard, ran hastily and paid respect to Asilla.
“Yes, you’ve worked hard, lieutenant. What’s the situation?
“Yes! As it stands! 7 dead! 26 seriously injured! 182 minorly injured! About 70% of the count is done! The search for the terrorists is still ongoing! That’s all!”
Betty closed her eyes.
‘There were casualties…’
As a member of the noble family that protects the kingdom, these sacrifices were deeply regrettable, but,
When Tom regained consciousness, she didn’t know how she was going to break the news to him. Everything became dark in front of her eyes.